The grocery titan, which recorded a 6.7% uplift in pre-tax profit to £494m in the 26 weeks to August 24 on flat group sales of £28.3bn, has unveiled that current boss Lewis will be succeeded by current Walgreens Boots Alliance chief commercial officer Ken Murphy when he steps down next year.

Chair John Allan said: “It is with regret that I have accepted the resignation of Dave Lewis as Group CEO of Tesco, who has decided that he wants to leave the business in the summer of 2020.

“Dave has done an outstanding job in rebuilding Tesco since 2014 and he continues to have unwavering support from the board. Some time ago, however, he indicated to me that he was considering the best time to hand over to a successor. His openness allowed me to begin a thorough and orderly process to identify a potential candidate to replace him. As a result, today, we have appointed Ken Murphy to succeed Dave as group CEO of Tesco next summer.”